I Read yesterday Palm’s latest announcement, of Palm Foleo, a new appliance, which is basically a very small factor laptop, 1.3 Kg (2.5 Pound), with a 10-inch screen. 
The Foleo serves as an external display, with larger keyboard, and syncs instantly with smart phones using Bluetooth technology. An update made in your smart phone will instantly appear on Foleo, and vise-versa (giving both products are in Bluetooth range). Why? because ‘sometimes you need a bigger screen’, according to Jeff Hawkins, Palm’s founder. Will that reason suffice? not sure. In my opinion Palm are taking a big (and costly) step in entering a flooded laptop market, with a product that is inferior to most others, and only advantage being its ability to ‘always sync’ to smart phones.
In an era when everyone are seeking smaller, faster, do-it-all gadgets (like Nokia N95), I’m not sure if adding a 2nd product to a person’s bag is really the correct way… Even now people are trying to minimize the amount of gadgets they carry: mobile phone already serves as a camera, email client, mp3, calendar and address book, GPS and more.. so why go against the trend? And you have to carry both products, your smartphone and the Foleo in order to enjoy the benefits they offer..
If Palm would offer their always-sync technology as a 3rd party software, that would be interesting – and an interesting way to expand your market, with current products, but new technologies.
Google goes offline
Imagine reading your rss feeds in reader, checking your Gmail and editing a Google Docs document – offline. No internet connection needed… This is cool. In an on-going trend of making software as a service (SaaS), that requires an internet connection, the next logical step is making SaaS-O (Software as a Service – offline).
Google Gears should do just that. Announced today, Gears is still in Beta and an Open Source application that allows the community to do some testing and mock-ups, while improving its abilities to accommodate their needs.
If you plan on testing this new application, pay close attention to the install instructions..
